On the verge of its first 3-0 start in decades, Wes-Del hasn't forgotten what it's like to be on the wrong end of a rout.

GASTON, Ind. — In the early-morning hours last Saturday, Wes-Del was less than two minutes from its second consecutive victory to open the season. A long night featuring a two-and-a-half-hour delay spent sitting in a stinky hallway was finally coming to an end.

A Lincoln ballcarrier ripped off a gain of 11 yards, but an official threw a flag for offensive holding. The official walked over to Tyler Rector, Wes-Del’s senior defensive captain.

“What do you want do to?” he asked Rector, who by that time had three interceptions in the game and four for the season.

Rector looked at the scoreboard — Wes-Del 36, Lincoln 6 — and thought about it for a second. He flashed back to all of the blowouts the Warriors had been on the wrong side of, most notably a 71-0 shellacking at the hands of Alexandria just two years ago on the same night Rector made his first varsity start. He was embarrassed that night, and he wondered if all the games were going to be like that.

Meanwhile, on the sideline, fourth-year coach Brad Hess was preoccupied with getting some late substitutions into the game. No matter, because Rector didn’t even glance over at Hess before he answered the official.

“Let them have it,” he said.

This week at practice, Rector elaborated on his decision: “It’s not going to change the game. It’s a positive for them, so let them keep their stats. It doesn’t hurt us, they didn’t score. … I thought it was the right thing to do.”

Hess, oblivious to what had just happened, talked to the official shortly after as the clock wound down.

“Hey, that was a real class act there, coach,” the official said.

“Hey, thanks,” a confused Hess replied.

After the game Rector sheepishly approached Hess, who by then had found out what had transpired.

“I hope you didn’t mind,” Rector said.

“Heck no,” Hess answered.

While they may be winning these games now — the Warriors are 2-0 entering Friday’s game against Tri-Village (Ohio) with a chance for their first 3-0 start since at least 1993 — they sure remember how it feels to be on the wrong end of those blowouts with nine losses by 27 points or more the last two seasons.

That explains Hess’ reaction — pride rather than anger.

“I’m honestly most proud of that kind of stuff because that’s the character we’re trying to teach with these kids,” Hess said at practice this week. “Everybody may not agree with us, but we’re trying to do it the right way. We’re trying to show sportsmanship. I mean, it’s high school football. Sometimes you have the better team or the better night, but they’re all high school kids. That’s part of it.”

Hess inherited a strong senior class when he took over at Wes-Del in 2013, and at 5-5, the Warriors nearly had their first winning season since 1993 when they won six games. But a 3-7 mark in 2014 — which included the aforementioned shellacking from Alexandria — and a 4-6 mark in 2015 (Hess says it’s really 4-5 as the game at North Decatur was called at halftime with Wes-Del trailing 14-8) stalled some of that early momentum.

Hess played at East Central, which this past season reached the Class 4A state title game, so it was different when he noticed some people reluctant to wear their Wes-Del T-shirts around. He had heard from some in the coaching community, “Wes-Del is a loser, it’s always going to be a loser.” But there were some in the coaching ranks who told him, “You know what, why can’t it be done?”

Inside the program, the now-senior class that Hess rebuilt around — including those like leading rusher Jake Redwine and safety Rector — kept its head down and continued to progress.

“We never lost that love for football,” senior defensive end Dillon Torbush said. “We knew what we were capable of, so we just kept working.”

Wes-Del played Alexandria in 12 of its last 20 season openers — and lost all 12, often by double digits. That helps explain why in leading up to this season’s opener, the players wrote “Beat Alexandria" in the weight room and deemed it their No. 1 goal to motivate them through the offseason.

That came to fruition as Wes-Del stymied Alexandria 14-0 two weeks ago.

“It’s an immense turnaround,” senior Calvin Carmin said. “It’s a completely different team we’re looking at. Two years ago to now, you won’t even recognize us.”

With that barrier out of the way, Wes-Del can refocus to bigger goals — like going 3-0 for the first time since what Hess thinks is the 1980’s, having a winning season for the first time since 1993 and winning its first sectional game since 1998.

The Warriors spent two and a half hours last Friday night in a cramped hallway waiting for the lightning to subside. Parents and kids walked through and joked about how bad it smelled. The players finally took their pads off, until the coaches came in to tell them to get ready to play. Then, of course, more lightning flashed across the sky, and the delay continued.

But the Warriors’ third 2-0 start since at least 1993 was worth the long wait (2007 and 2001 were the others). They are playing without their starting quarterback (junior Camden Townsend hurt his elbow in a preseason scrimmage and may return soon, and sophomore Mason Whitted has filled in admirably) and Torbush — one of the four captains along with Jacob Newsome, Carmin and Rector — is returning this week from a shoulder injury and also hasn’t played. And all that makes the strong start all the more impressive.

Rector got home around 3 a.m. Saturday morning and went to sleep as part of just the third class in the last two decades with a chance to start the season 3-0 — and pending Friday night’s game, maybe the first to do so. He hadn’t told any of his teammates about why he declined the penalty and the significance of being in that situation after so many times being the team desperate for those late-game garbage yards.

But one thing is for sure: Tyler Rector and the Wes-Del Warriors remember how it feels — and this is undoubtedly better.